The Olive Opinion

  Laika has made a handful of stop-motion animated movies (some people consider it claymation) over the years, setting the studio apart from most animation companies. Unlike most of these companies, their work involves many years of handcrafted work, from character design to the careful puppetry of their movements. Their new feature,  Wildwood , based on the children's novel of the same name by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, is an epic fantasy adventure about a young Prue who must enter the mysterious woods near her hometown with her friend Curtis to find her baby brother, Mack, who has been taken.  Seemingly more PG than Laika's other features and significantly longer in runtime, Wildwood takes several liberties in both animation and, to an extent, mature themes that they are usually used to and manages to captivate viewers in exciting ways.  From several aspects of puppetry and claymation, the ideas are the most complex they have done thus far. There are several, n...

  Still at the building-block stage of the DCU, James Gunn continues to set this franchise on a course similar to the MCU's expansion into television. Hopefully for the better, Lanterns makes that reality possible with its 8-episode first season. (Hopefully, they renew it) With the help of stellar producers, Damon Lindelof (Watchmen), Chris Mundy, and Tom King. Lanterns introduces us to a southern town called Rushville, where Hal Jordan, the current Green Lantern in 2016, is suspicious of a conspiracy no one else believes in, while the Guardians of Oa enlist John Stewart, an ex-military candidate, to possibly replace Hal and shadow the Green Lantern in this investigation. Ten years later, John and Hal are forced to reckon with the suffering they caused the last time they were there, creating a double-edged mystery.  The show's backdrop and aesthetic evoke an unfamiliar setting reminiscent of Western cop shows and True Detective, with a sci-fi twist. With that, Lanterns explor...

  Unlike most animated studios, DreamWorks has been adopting the animation style popularized by the Sony Spider-Verse movies, which seems to be translating well with audiences, especially with films like their previous outing, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Netflix's infamous K-pop Demon Hunters. The studio has now returned with yet another original project that has been buzzed about for months, centered on friendship, the 90s, and Filipino folklore, all wrapped together.  Forgotten Island is a literal mixtape of those aforementioned elements, wrapped into a vibrant and gorgeously animated feature that proves itself to be more than just its marketing campaign. Centered on two longtime friends, Jo and Raisa, who are grappling to keep their friendship alive. This leaves them lost in a fantastical, otherworldly setting that proves the folklore and mythology stories Jo's grandmother told them when they were kids to be true.  This feature, although targeted at kids, as most...

  Some say movies like Bend It Like Beckham , decades ago, or more recently Never Have I Ever , made promising progress in South Asian representation in Hollywood. Best Of The Best makes it very clear that the hunger for this representation is present and can be expressed in ways that could build recognition for creatives.  Lena Khan, who directed several TV episodes and is best known for her work with Maitreyi Ramakrishnan on the breakout show that made her the recognizable face we all know and love, helms this Netflix film to flesh out the world of a very prominent competitive culture in American universities: Bollywood Fusion dance teams. Against the backdrop of UCLA, two childhood friends, Maya (Ramakrishnan) and Anjali, played by newcomer Priyanka Kedia, join the dance team and become deeply involved in the South Asian culture it embraces.  The film very much portrays that culture within every college these days that has a South Asian Student Association (SASA), as...

  The beloved video game franchise has been adapted into several movies and TV shows countless times in the last 20 years, and none have really pleased fans or casual viewers alike. You'd think they would stop, but they never gave up on it. Now, with Zach Cregger at the helm, Sony has brought back Resident Evil with the intention of possibly revitalizing the franchise in hopes of being considered part of not only the current horror renaissance but also the slew of successful video game adaptations.  Cregger, director of The Barbarian and Weapons , intended to create an experience with his third outing that might recreate the feeling of a bystander watching someone else play the games. He also uses his filmmaking and writing styles to create a fresh take on the otherworldly world-building that has become integral to video games and the survival-horror subgenre.  He manages to do it extremely well, with the intention of certain shots conveying the POV in PlayStation singl...

  So what happens when you put Dinosaurs attacking suburban America in the 80's? I think J.J. Abrams and David Robert Mitchell have your answer. The End of Oak Street is the last movie of the summer, in hopes of competing with the very prominent and popular choices that audiences would rather flock to see in cinemas. The concept of this film is interesting, as Anne Hathaway (in her fourth feature this year) and Ewan McGregor are suburban parents, with their two kids played by Maisy Stella and Christian Convery, who are facing difficulties in their nuclear family dynamic and are forced to survive as their street is transported to the age of the dinosaurs. A concept that, personally, intrigued me before I ever watched a trailer.  Unfortunately, the film seems to be living in an era when the 80s were cool again, but it is instead a reminder that maybe that trend has officially run its course. There have been several TV shows and movies that used the 80's to possibly kickstart wha...